current OS license

[Paul Spencer]

That's my understanding of how the license works, for what its  
worth :)  But there is a risk right now ... one thing that came to  
light at the last MUM was from the Apache Foundation experience.  As  
things are right now with MapServer, it is quite possible that  
someone could contribute code that is not theirs to contribute, or  
claim that MapServer uses code that it has no right to.  This would  
lead to a lawsuit from some third party claiming that MapServer uses  
proprietary code which would tie us up in a legal battle for the  
right to use MapServer (think SCO vs Linux).  The Apache Foundation  
provides a legal framework to protect against this type of thing.  I  
believe that this is one of the things that the MapServer foundation  
should provide to projects under its umbrella.

Paul


On 29-Nov-05, at 1:32 PM, Charlton Purvis wrote:

> Hi, folks:
>
> Although there continues to be an open source spirit surrounding  
> the code
> amid the launch of a MS Foundation, I'd like to ask for  
> clarification re.
> the license of the MS code as it stands now.
>
> If for whatever reason a company like Autodesk (or I guess it would  
> have to
> be the Foundation) wanted to slap some kind of non-open source  
> license on
> the code, is it true that the current code we call MapServer in its  
> current
> state will always remain covered under the license below?   
> Basically I'm
> trying to make sure that a shop can't somehow repossess something  
> that was
> originally OS thus preventing folks from using it like it's being  
> used now.
>
> Charlton
>
> ********************************************************************** 
> ******
> **
>  * Copyright (c) 1996-2005 Regents of the University of Minnesota.
>  *
>  * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person  
> obtaining a
>  * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
> "Software"),
>  * to deal in the Software without restriction, including without  
> limitation
>  * the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute,  
> sublicense,
>  * and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to  
> whom the
>  * Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following  
> conditions:
>  *
>  * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be  
> included
> in
>  * all copies of this Software or works derived from this Software.
>  *
>  * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,  
> EXPRESS
>  * OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
> MERCHANTABILITY,
>  * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO  
> EVENT SHALL
>  * THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,  
> DAMAGES OR
> OTHER
>  * LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,  
> ARISING
>  * FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER
>  * DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
>
> ********************************************************************** 
> ******
> **

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|Paul Spencer                           pspencer at dmsolutions.ca   |
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|Applications & Software Development                              |
|DM Solutions Group Inc                 http://www.dmsolutions.ca/|
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